Steve Stone is WGN's loss, ESPN's gain

FINE TUNING

June 14, 2005|By Jay Hart Of The Morning Call

People liked to make fun of Harry Caray's bumbling through a ballgame, but what they didn't know was that sitting beside Caray for all those years in Chicago was Steve Stone, who really has forgotten more baseball than most people ever knew. (That phrase is used way too often, but in Stoney's case, it's absolutely true.)

Stone, a former Cy Young winner with the Baltimore Orioles, knows pitching, and through the 1980s taught me the game of baseball. For every one of Caray's, "Andres Galarraga -- I wonder what that spells backwards," Stoney would tell his WGN viewers where the defense would play, where the bunt should go and what pitch to look for and where.

More often than not, he was right, the pitch would go exactly where he predicted, and when he was wrong, the pitcher usually gave up a hit, meaning Stoney was still right.

The Cubs let him go prior to this season after a much-publicized feud with manager Dusty Baker. (Stone criticized the Cubs down the stretch. Baker didn't take kindly to it, even though Stone was dead on.)

Last Wednesday, Stone was back at Wrigley along with his ESPN crew to announce an afternoon tilt between the Cubs and Toronto Blue Jays. And I was again reminded of Stoney's brilliance.

In the bottom of the eight, with the Cubs clinging to a 2-0 lead, the Blue Jays' Reed Johnson came to the plate with two outs and a runner on first. On the mound for the Cubs was Michael Wuertz, who Stone told us has "a real good sinker and a hard slider."

Johnson worked to a full count, at which point Stone said, "Wuertz's best pitch is a slider. You can pretty much chalk up a slider right here. If he gets it down in a good spot, he'll get him."

Wuertz got his slider down in a good spot, Johnson swung through it and the inning was over. That's why if I were a general manager, I would have Steve Stone on my bench.

On Thorne's side: I've said before, Gary Thorne is the best play-by-play guy in the business. Wednesday, during the Cubs-Blue Jays day game, he made the following observation:

"Wrigley's got another full house on hand. There's no better money-making machine, maybe in the world, than Wrigley Field, Chicago. Just open the doors and take it to the bank. And there's no mortgage."

Interrupt him, please: During his appearance on ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" last week, super agent Drew Rosenhaus said absolutely nothing about the holdout of his client, Terrell Owens. Rosenhaus said he didn't know if Owens would be in training camp, and when pressed to put a percentage on the possibility, he said 50-50. Then he said things like, "We're going to be flexible," and "We're taking things day-to-day."

Hosts Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser asked all the right questions, but the only insight came when Kornheiser asked Rosenhaus, "Do you have a soul?"

Rosenhaus said yes, but the interview suggested otherwise, and that much we already knew.

Cue the piano music: During the run-up to Saturday's Belmont Stakes, NBC's Bob Costas started the broadcast by telling us about the favorite, Afleet Alex, then segued right into the story about Alex's Lemonade Stand, the charity effort started by 8-year-old Alex Scott to raise money for cancer research. Costas told us about how the little girl started the lemonade stand on her own, how she went on the "Today Show" to promote it, and about how soon after hundreds of lemonade stands popped up all over the country.

Then he told us, "Now, Afleet Alex was not named for Alex Scott, but a connection has been made, a connection Afleet Alex's connections have been happy to embrace, and a connection made more significant by Afleet Alex's breathtaking win in the Preakness."

Cue video of Afleet Alex coming down the stretch run at the Preakness, when the horse stumbled, nearly fell, but remarkably regained his footing and won the race.

Then it went to jockey Jeremy Rose, who said, "Someone reached out and grabbed me and put me back on the horse," at which point NBC gratuitously flashed a picture of Alex Scott, conveniently making the connection for us.

But wait, there's more. Here's how NBC ended the package: "Today, a horse that almost went to his knees, can bring a country to its feet."

If it sounds familiar, it should. NBC ripped it off from the trailer for "Cinderella Man," which says about James Braddock, "When the country was on its knees, he brought them to their feet."

Lackluster ratings: Ratings for Game 2 of the NBA finals were down 31 percent from last year, and 28 percent total for the first two games.